Choose a house in the UK right now! How long does it take to take on such an important choice. One that effects every day of your life if you live in it? This was the question raised this week and suprisingly the online survey from mortgage provider ING Direct claimed it takes just 21 minutes to choose a new home!

The reason? Well it may be due to the low supply of good properties means that buyers feel driven to make a quick decision. Understandably if you’ve been bitten before then you may feel the need to make a hasty offer to prevent another buyer from beating you to it.

Choice of TV is 10 times more important than choice of house

The study from ING Direct made some interesting comparisons:

Time spent choosing to buy a house: 21 minutes

Time spent choosing a new coffee table: 164 minutes

Time spent choosing a satellite TV package: 217 minutes

Time spent choosing a new television: 284 minutes

Not long to choose your house

Things are changing in the property market as we mentioned in yesterdays report, but even so based on the last year the chief executive of ING Direct, said: “Our research shows that it is the lack of supply of homes that is driving increases in house prices. At first it seems strange that people will spend such little time making one of the most important decisions of their lives. However, in this market, people are afraid of missing out and are making snap decisions.”

How long to choose a house in UK? – Further Statistics

Other statistics from the ING survey included soke regional averages on choice of house:

East Anglia took 18.87 minutes to choose a house.

South East took 19.54 minutes

Wales took 19.68 minutes.

Yorkshire took 23.54 minutes

Londoners with 23.25 minutes

West Midlands took 22.31 minutes.

Its good to know that at least the coffee table will look good in the chosen homes!